A popular Nickelodeon show featuring eleven-year-old Doug Funnie and his experiences with his friends, family and community. Beginning with Doug's arrival in Bluffington, he dutifully writes about his every adventure in his journal, which frames almost every episode. Very early on, he gained a best friend in Mosquito "Skeeter" Valentine, a bully in Roger Klotz, and a love interest in the
tomboyish Patti Mayonnaise. His dog Porkchop frequently steals the show with his antics, not unlike
Snoopy. Many other colorful characters (both literally and figuratively) were featured.
In many episodes, Doug pretends to be one of his personal superheroes to solve the problem; the methods the hero uses are adapted to fit a real-life situation. For example, one episode has the vice principal Mr. Bone refusing to have a popular rock band play at their school; he considers it heathen entertainment. Doug pretends to be Quailman dealing with the strict alien robots called Robo-Bones. When Quailman couldn't overpower the robots, they turned on him with horrible yodeling (Mr. Bone was part of a yodeling quartet). Quailman ended up saving the day by suggesting that they sing in key and form a band, which made everyone happy. Doug learned that instead, of fighting Mr. Bone, they should make a compromise. He suggested Mr. Bone's yodeling group to open for the rock band, figuring that the student body suffering for five minutes was worth it.
Those imaginary characters were
Homages to other heroes in pop culture. Smash Adams was
James Bond, Race Canyon was
Indiana Jones, Quailman had some resemblence to
Superman. Skeeter once revealed his personal superhero as Silver Skeeter, obviously based on
the Silver Surfer.
Despite its cartoony elements, the show is beloved for showing genuine pathos about the struggles of growing up. It also breaks away from the borderline-
Negative Continuity of other Nickelodeon shows, even getting a
Grand Finale when the network prized being able to not pay attention to airing order.
Many typical character types were also subverted—while some characters still fulfilled a certain role, they weren't bound to that behavior. Roger Klotz wasn't constantly tormenting Doug, Beebe Bluff was actually quite nice as
The Libby, etc.
After its initial run, which coincided with
Rugrats, the show was bought and
Retooled by Disney into
Brand Spanking New Doug (Or
Disney's Doug as it was later branded), which was considered successful in its own right (at least in terms of merchandising). While all this was happening, creator Jim Jinkins began work on a kids' show,
PB And J Otter, which spent three seasons on Playhouse Disney.
This show provides examples of:
- The Ace: Chalky Studebaker was the star athlete of every athletic team, and was the swim team. Deconstructed when Doug learned that he has insecurities about having to be the best at everything.
- Accidental Athlete: Doug becomes field goal kicker of the football team.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: White, blue, purple, green…
- Art Evolution: Relatively minor in mostly the animation style, in later episodes the characters are less rubbery. Brand Spanking New modifies the outfits but is otherwise identical.
- Book Dumb: Doug was an average student and an average athlete, but part of the success of the show is that he is socially savvy enough to figure his way out of problems using a more natural intelligence rather than school learned.
- Catch Phrase: Mr. Dink is middle-class, just like Doug's family, but he has enough money to buy pretty much whatever he wants. So, of course, his favorite things are "very expensive".
- Cats Are Mean: Stinky is, at least.
- Compressed Vice: Roger is particularly prone to this.
- Crazy Cultural Comparison: Fentruck's holiday celebrations.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mrs. Dink
- Does This Remind You Of Anything / G Rated Drug: Nic-Nacs.
- Earworm: You've been humming the theme song since the page finished loading. Admit it.
- And if not, you've just started.
- Which, the Nick intro or the Disney one?
- This troper automatically started humming the Nickelodeon one, but she grew up with it so she's biased.
- The Everyman: Doug is a mild-mannered, Book Dumb student with a mostly unrequited crush on a girl, is only a moderate athlete, and can never stay ahead for long.
- First Kiss: The subject of an entire episode. It ends up being Doug and Beebe.
- Genius Ditz: Skeeter's revealed to be this in one episode, though it was hidden because he's Book Dumb. It took Doug the entire episode to accept it, reluctantly.
- Her Code Name Was Mary Sue: Many of Doug's Imagine Spots fill this role. There's also the episode where Doug and Skeeter collaborate on a comic, with both of them as superheroes.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Principle Buttsavitch is occasionally referred to, but Doug realized in the Nickelodeon Finale that he (and we) never actually meet the guy.
- Hollywood Tone Deaf: Patti, in the Disney version's episode about the town anthem contest.
- She WAS a good singer in one episode of the Nickelodeon series.
- I Have This Friend: Practically Doug's catchphrase.
- Insistent Terminology: It's a journal, not a diary!
- Jerkass: Roger
- Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Roger on other occasions.
- Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded and turned into an episode. Doug always wears brown khaki shorts with a green vest over a white shirt. When their favorite TV star wears the same outfit, everyone copies the style, and they think Doug has, too. He spends the entire episode trying to prove that he isn't a lemming, even showing everyone his entire wardrobe of identical clothes, then eventually gives up, figuring that it's not worth the trouble... only to find everyone is now copying a different outfit the TV star wears, which looks the same as Skeeter's.
- Loads And Loads Of Characters
- Master Of The Mixed Message: Patti Mayonnaise. One episode she actually asks him out on a date, which ends kind of awkwardly. This back-and-forth behavior continues throughout the rest of the series.
- The Movie: Creatively titled Doug's 1st Movie. (However, maybe a more accurate title would be Doug's Only Movie.)
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Doug's rock band was named The Beets in homage to The Beatles. They also had an Arnold Schwarzenegger parody. Not to mention Mr. Bone is clearly based on Don Knotts.
- Nothing Is The Same Anymore: The premise of the first episode of Disney's Doug, where Doug finds the world he knows has changed- the Jerk Jock bully won the lottery, his favourite movie character has been Retooled, and his usual barber shop is under new management. Doug decides to change a bit himself (specifically, his haircut).
- One Judge To Rule Them All: Bill Bluff in the contest to name the new school in "Doug's New School". He names it the "Beebe Bluff Middle School" after his daughter, making the whole contest (and conflict of the episode) pointless.
- The Other Darrin: Thomas McHugh replaced Billy West as Doug's voice in the Disney series. This was made note of in its first episode.
- Rich Bitch: Beebe, though not nearly as bad as some examples (usually). Roger is a worse, male version in the retool.
- Screams Like A Little Girl: Roger seems like a tough guy until he screams...
- Secret Diary: Roger gets his hands on Doug's journal in "Doug's Runaway Journal". Turns out he couldn't read any of it because Doug's handwriting is so bad.
- Super Power Lottery: Skeeter's superhero Silver Skeeter has a superpower for any and all situations, which Doug finds annoying because it lacks any serious tension.
- Take A Third Option: Most of Doug's problems are solved through compromises between him and whoever he happens to be confronting.
- The Talk: A Running Gag of Disney's Doug has his father trying to initiate the conversation, which is usually offset by Doug being concerned with something unrelated. It doesn't help that he is trying to segway using nonsensical metaphors. "The salmon swims upstream."
- They Changed It Now It Sucks: While Disney's Doug lasted three years, some fans were simply turned off by the change. Of course others did enjoy it.
- Verbal Tic: Skeeter's little honking noises he makes.
- What Kind Of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway: Subverted. Quailman's main superpower is the hypnotic "Quail-Eye," but he rarely encounters a situation that he could fix through sheer force, forcing him to take a third option.
- Keep in mind this is a superhero whose main attributes are a belt on his forehead and wearing his underwear over his pants.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Most episodes are structured this way, as Doug writes about it in his journal.
- Your Tomcat Is Pregnant: Roger's cat Stinky fell into this trope
